Short Takes

EarthLines praises Julian Hoffman's THE SMALL HEART OF THINGS:

For me, reading this book was a profound experience; a significant shift in my coming to terms with separation from my own deeply-rooted shadow places. Hoffman’s entrancing prose illuminates the processes by which ‘the subjective allure of the land is a continually shifting, and enriching, inner terrain’ and, for me, travelling through these essays was like a homing in itself; like the ‘accumulation of light’ which, in that ‘heartwood’ essay, grows even in its passing and in the shadows; an enriching meditation on how that process builds, and how we can carry those moments with us, connecting home to home in our wider home, and constantly creating roots in new soil. This is a book to which I will return, and return.

The book launch for SLAVERY AND FREEDOM IN SAVANNAH took place in Savannah on February 12 at Telfair Museums. Here is a photo of the editors, Leslie M. Harris and Daina Berry, at the event.

Daina Ramey Berry (second from left) and Leslie M. Harris (center)

On Susan Puckett's EAT DRINK DELTA, Culinate.com says "Whether bringing multicultural influences to Southern food, offering ideas on handling unique ingredients, or collecting observations traveling from one town to another, these authors each enlighten us further about the South — its land, people, and foods."

The Journal of American History commends Megan Kate Nelson for her work in RUIN NATION saying "[a]n unusual strength of the book is the author’s use of visual evidence, including photographs, engravings, and lithographs to make important points about the cultural interpretation of war’s destruction.”

According to The Journal of American History, Joshua D. Rothman's FLUSH TIMES AND FEVER DREAMS “is an original contribution to cultural history of the antebellum slave South.”

The Register of the Kentucky Historical also reviewed FLUSH TIMES AND FEVER DREAMS saying it “is a fine example of historical detective work, anthropological analysis, and lively narration. Readers looking for a richly colored portrait of a time and its problems will enjoy it immensely.”

Antipode commented on Jason Hackworth's FAITH BASED saying it provides "an important intervention that takes seriously the role of evangelical FBOs in the construction of our current welfare apparatus."

Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism recently said THE BIOREGIONAL IMAGINATION, edited by Tom Lynch, Cheryll Glotfelty, and Karla Armbruster, “promises a systematic approach to literature and a more rigorous theoretical framework. In fact, it offers an openness and open-endedness and an overriding sense that ‘a bioregion is a story – an open, permeable story’ (112)."

As reviewed by Florida Historical Quarterly, Mark D. Hersey's MY WORK IS THAT OF CONSERVATION is a “well-written reconsideration [that] should find a welcome audience not only among scholars of environmental history and African American though and culture, but also among advocates seeking environmental justice and sustainable practice today.”